The first known manual about book-keeping was Della mercatura
e del mercante perfetto, (On merchantry and the perfect merchant)
written in
1458 by Benko Kotruljic or Benedikt
Kotruljevic (Benedictus de Cotrullis, 1416-1469).
It is also the oldest known manuscript on double-entry.

His another important manuscript is Benedictus de Cotrullis:
"De Navigatione", 1464, written also in Italian. It is the first
known manual on navigation in the history of Europe.

Frederik Grisogono (1472-1538),
a mathematician, physicist, astronomer and physician, was educated in
Padova, where later he became a university professor. His most
important contribution
was the
theory of tides, based on the attraction of the Moon.

Juraj Dragisic (Georgius
Benignus), Franciscan born
in the famous Bosnian town Srebrenica, suggested a reform
of the
Julian calendar to Pope Leon X in 1514.

Giulio
Camillo Delminio (1479-1544), a famous but forgotton Renaissance
thinker, "one of those people whome their contemporaries regard with
awe as having vast potentialities". He is most famous for his Theatre
of Memory (or Memory Theatre)

Vinko
Paletin(1508-1575), born in the noble family on the island
of Korcula, arrived to Mexico as a young missionary. For several years
Paletin was employed on diplomatic missions for the Spanish King Philip
II.

The first technical discoveries are related
to the name of Faust Vrancic (lat. Faustus
Verantius, italianized name Fausto Veranzio, hungarized
name Faustus Verancsics, 1551-1617). He is best known for his
book of inventions in Machinae Novae, published also in Venice
in 1595. Among his numerous inventions the most famous is the parachute,
which he tested in Venice. Vrancic also constructed a mill driven by
tides, ropeway, gave a new construction of metal bridges (suspended by
iron chains, i.e. suspension bridges).

Nikola Sorgoevic,
a
sea captain from Dubrovnik, 16th centur, wrote several books
on navigation, shipbuilding, and tides.

Franjo Petris (Franciscus
Patricius, 1529-1597), a philosopher, mathematician
and astronomer, was lecturing at the University of Ferrara
and in Sapienza in Rome.

Marin
Getaldic - Ghetaldus (1568-1622), was the most
outstanding Croatian scientist of his time.
His best results
are mainly in physics, especially optics, and mathematics.
Getaldic is the constructor of the parabolic mirror (diameter 2/3 m),
kept today in the National Maritime Museum in London.

One of the most outstanding
Dubrovnik mathematicians,
physicists and astronomers of the 17th century
was Stjepan Gradic
(1613-1683), who was a Director of the Vatican Library.

Ivo Puljizic, born in Pucisce on
the island of Brac,
made irrigation plans for the Vatican in the 17th century.

Ferdinand
Konscak, or Fernardo Consag (1703-1757), was a Jesuit and a
Croatian missionary in North America. In 1752 he discovered that Baja
California was not an island, as it had been believed until then,
but a peninsula.

Ignacije
Szentmartony(1718-1793) was a Croatian Jesuit. In 1753 he
sailed off from Portugal to the mouth of Amazon river for geographic
research there. He wrote the first Croatian kajkavian grammar for
Germans.

The first balloonist in Croatia was Karlo Mrazovic, who performed two balloon
flights in Zagreb with his own balloons in 1789 and 1790. He was born
in Boka kotorska.

Simun
Stratik (Simone Stratico, 1733-1829), outstanding specialist
in nautical theory, lectured
mathematics and nautical theory in Padova and Pavia. He prepared a new
edition
of Vitruvius' famous
Architecture (1825) in four books.

Filip Vezdin
or Wesdin (Paulinus a Sancto Bartolomaeo, 1748-1806),
pioneer of European indology, born in a Croatian village of Cimov (Hof
am Leithagebirge) in Lower Austria in Burgenland (Gradisce). He is the
author of the first printed Sanskrit grammar in Europe, published in
1790 in Rome.

Franjo Domin (1754-1819) was among
the first who cured various diseases
by electrotherapy using static electricity.

The first torpedo was constructed by Ivan
Lupis Vukic in the 19th century in Rijeka, where its production had
started in 1866 in the Whitehead factory.

The first ship-screw (propeller) has been constructed by
Yosip Ressel in 1827 (the first
steamers were constructed
with paddles).

David
Schwarz, a Zagreb Jew (1852-1897), invented steerable metal airship
that is today unjustly bearing the name
of the German count Zeppelin.

It is not widely known that one of the
earliest hydroelectric power plants in
the world has been built up in Croatia, on the beautiful Krka
waterfalls. It brought light to the city of Sibenik in 1895.

Modern Slavic studies were founded by Vatroslav
Jagic (born in Varazdin,
1838-1923), professor of philology at the Universities of Zagreb,
Berlin, Vienna,
Sankt
Petersburg, Odessa.

Some important
discoveries in the field of Croatian archeology were
accomplished
by don Frano Bulic (1846-1936).

One of the pioneers of telegraphy is Ferdinand
Kovacevic
(1838-1913). He invented the possibility of telegraphic connection
along a single
wire (the duplex connection), whereas before four wires had
been used.

Antun Lucic
(americanized name is Anthony F. Lucas; born in Split 1855,
died in Washington 1921) discovered the first major gusher in Texas, The
Lucas gusher, flowing at the rate of 80,000 to 100,000 barrels per
day. It blew in January 1901.

Dragutin
Gorjanovic Kramberger (1856-1936) was a professor of geology and
paleontology at the University of Zagreb. He discovered the richest
collection of remains of Diluvial Neanderthal people in the world on a
site not far from Zagreb (Krapina).

Josip (Juan)
Vucetic (1858-1925), a pioneer of the scientific dactyloscopy
(identification by fingerprints). Vucetic was also the one who
introduced the notion of dactyloscopy in 1920, now in current
use worldwide.

The scientific activity of Vladimir Varicak (1865-1942), professor of
mathematics at the
University of Zagreb, was mainly in
non-Euclidean geometry and its applications to Einstein's
theory of relativity.

Eduard (Slavoljub) Penkala (1871-1922) invented
the mechanical
pen in
1906 and fountain pen in 1907.
The name of "penkala" is derived from his family name.

Ivan
Saric, was a constructor of planes,
who
had been flying in Subotica in 1913.

Stanko Hondl (1873-1971),
professor of physics at
the University of Zagreb, has a great merit for popularizing Einstein's
theory of relativity in Croatia.

Jaroslav
Havlicek (1879 - 1950) invented a steam boiler fed by coal powder
represented a revolution in building large power supplies. A reputed
journal Applied Mechanic's Review included him among 10 most
important personalities in the history of energetics (besides Volta,
Fermi, Edison, Tesla).

Franjo Hanaman (1878-1941), chemist and
metallurgist, invented together with Aleksandar
Just the first economical electric bulb with wolfram filament.

Nikola Tesla
(1856-1943) is equally known by his contribution to the high frequency
technology and wireless communications. The unit for magnetic
induction Tesla, was named after him (Conference general des poids
et mesures, Paris, 1960). He refused to receive the Nobel prize which
he had to share with T.A. Edison.

Among scientists studying seismology the
famous Moho-layer (or Moho-discontinuity) of the Earth is well
known. It was named after the great Croatian geophysicist Andrija Mohorovicic
(1857-1936), professor at the University of Zagreb. His discovery was
essential for understanding the inner structure of the Earth and the
behavior of seismic waves.

Stjepan Mohorovicic (1880-1980),
professor of physics at a grammar school in Zagreb, made a very
important
theoretical discovery of the positronium (rotational
pair of electron and positron) as early as in 1934, published in
"Astronomishe Nachrichten", a prestigeous German scientific journal.

As an explorer, Dragutin Lerman
(1863-1918) was a member of
Stanley's expedition to Congo (Zaire), and a commissary
(Commissaire General) of the Belgian
government in Congo. By the end of his career
the Belgian king Leopold conferred the
knighthood of Lion's order on him. And the famous Stanley
wrote: "The Croat is energetic, cautious, in high
spirits..."

Brothers Mirko (1871-1913)
and StevoSeljan
(1876-1936) spent several years in Ethiopia carrying out
geomorphological, climatological and ethnographic
investigations. They occupied an important position at the court of
Ethiopian Emperor Menelik II. Later they went to South America, where
they founded the society La Mission Cientifica Croata Mirko y Stevo
Seljan and organized some expeditions, especially in Peru, Chile
and Brazil (in the region of the Amazon).

Henry Suzzallo
(originally Zucalo, of Croatian origin, 1875-1933) was president of the
University of Washington from 1915 to 1926. The central library of the
University of Washington is called Suzzallo Library.

One of the most outstanding
representatives of photochemistry was Ivan
Plotnikov (1878-1955), a Russian emigrant to Croatia (1918).

Milan Sufflay
(1879-1931), was a brilliant Croatian historian and polyglot of
international reputation, known by his numerous scientific
contributions, especially in the field of albanology.

Peruvian Croat Juan (Jean) Bielovucic (1889-1949) was one
of the first aviators in history. In 1913 he traversed for the first
time the Alps by monoplane (20km in 26 minutes), reaching the height of
3200 m. He was one of the founders of Peruvian aviation.

Ivan Jagsic (1886-1956),
Burgenland Croat
from Austria, was a professor of University of Cordoba,
Argentina, where he lectured meteorology and astronomy.

Rudolf
Fizir (1891-1960) built 18 airplanes. He was awarded the Paul
Tissandier Diploma by the F.A.I. (Fédération
Aeronautique Internationale), for his achievements in developing world
aviation. With his two-wing aircraft Fizir, constructed in
1925, he won the first prize at the Petite Entente contest in 1927.

Stefan Gelineo (1898-1971) is internationally known by his
contributions to
the study of hypothermia, i.e. the study of vital functions
under low temperatures.

Stjepan
Mlakic (1844-?),
Bosnian Croat, was a missionary in Africa among the tribes of
Shiluks and Nuers in Sudan. Besides his native Croatian
he spoke German, Italian, English and Arabian, to which he added
the language of Nilot tribe of Nuers.

Bernardo
Kohnen (1876-1937),
German by birth, devoted about 30 years of his life to
the evangelization and study of life of Shiluks (southern Sudan),
at that time one of the most isolated tribes in Africa, and other Nilot
tribes (Denka, Nuer, etc).

Fran
Bosnjakovic (1902-1993), born in Zagreb,
was one of world's leading experts in technical thermodynamics in the
20th century.

Danilo Blanusa (1903-1987),
Croatian mathematician,
professor at the University of Zagreb
He discovered a mistake in relations for absolute
heat Q and temperature T in relativistic
phenomenological thermodynamics, published by Max Planck in Annalen der
Physik
in 1908. His work about imbeddings of hyperbolic spaces into Euclidean
spaces has been cited in 1956 by John Nash.

William Feller (Vilim, Willy, Willi, 1906-1970) is
a well known name among mathematicians dealing with probability theory.
Many important mathematical notions bear his name: Feller's
process, Feller's transition function, Feller's semigroup, Feller's
property.
He is best known for his monograph "An Introduction to Probability
Theory
and its Applications", Volumes I and II, on 1153 pp., translated into
Russian, Chinese, Spanish, Hungarian and Polish.

Vladimir
Jurko Glaser (1924-1984), theoretical physicist in the field of
quantum fields theory, published one of the first monographs on Quantum
Electrodynamics in the world (Kovarijantna kvantna elektrodinamika,
Zagreb 1955, written in Croatian), at the age of 31.

One of our best theoretical physicists
was Gaja Alaga
(1924-1988). In 1955, in cooperation with K. Alder from Switzerland, A.
Bohr from Denmark and B. Mottelson from the USA, he discovered the so
called K-selection rules and intensity rules for beta and gamma
transitions in deformed nuclei.

Nikola
Cindro (1931-2001) outstanding Croatian physicist, occupied the
position of vice president of European Physical Society.

Zvonimir
Janko (1932), professor of mathematics at the University of
Heidelberg, is well known among experts in the theory of finite groups.
His discovery of finite group J1 in 1964, more
than a century after the discovery of the first sporadic group,
launched the modern theory of sporadic groups.

Lavoslav Ruzicka (1887-1976), obtained the Nobel
Prize for discoveries in organic chemistry in 1939 as professor at the
Technische Hochschule in Zurich, Switzerland 1939.

Vladimir
Prelog, (1906-1998), obtained the Nobel Prize for discoveries in
organic chemistry in 1975, working at the Technische Hochschule in
Zurich, 1975. The third Croatian Nobel Prize winner is Ivo Andric, for literature.

Mario Puretic (1917, his true name was Mario Puratic), revolutionarized the
technology of pulling out fishing nets from the sea by his construction
of what is now known as the Puretic Power Block in
1950s. He was elected among hundred greatest USA inventors of the 20th
century.

Anthony
Maglica, holder of hundreds of patents and trademarks,
founded Mag Instrument, Inc, in Los
Angeles in 1955, and
designed Mag-Lite flashlight, which is now an
American product
icon, among 100 top products that "America makes best".

Agabekov SA is world's famous company seated in
Geneva, Switzerland, dealing with exterior lighting design. It founder
is Mr Youri Agabekov, who has Croatian roots

Ralph Tony
Sarich (born in 1938) developed the Orbital Engine in
1972. He is a recipent of several prestigeous ingeneering awards like
Australian Inventor of the Year 1972, Sir Lawrence Hartnett Inventors
Award 1972, etc.

Daniel D. Gajski, was a principal
contributor to the areas of Silicon Compilation, High-Level Synthesis,
and System-Level Design.

Marin Soljacic is the author of the new Wireless
Power Transfer, conceived in 1996.

Croatian Medicine

Valent Cibel
(born around 1490), wrote
one of the first anti alcoholic publications in history.

Gjuro Baglivi (1668-1707)
was
a professor of anatomy and theoretical medicine in Rome
(Sapienza) already at the age of 28, and the Pope's physician.

Mihajlo Soretic (1741-1786),
professor at the
Universities of Trnava and Budapest, conjectured the law
of the specific energies of senses. Niko
Ostoic (born on the island of Hvar,
1810-1848) wrote one of the pioneering works on modern
heliotherapy.

Ferdinand Hadvig was a surgeon in
Zagreb who already in 1792 was vaccinating
children in Zagreb against smallpox.

Count Edgar Bourée de Corberon
(1807-1861), descendant of an old French noble family, urged Croatian
Ban Josip Jelacic
to
reestablish
the
University of Zagreb to full extent (in 1850 the Faculty of
Philosophy was cancelled), offering his help as a potential
lecturer.

Karl Heitzmann (1836-1896) was a
histologist and pathologist and worked in Vienna and New York. He was
the first who described hematoblasts. Emanuel
Klein (1844-1925), a Croatian Jew, worked as a bacteriologist and
histologist in
London. He proved the streptococal etiology
of scarlatina.

Ante
Grosic (1849-1926) was the
first to introduce iodic tincture in preoperative disinfection
of patient's skin.

Stjepan Poljak (1889-1955), a neuroanatomist, professor in Berkeley
and Chicago,
was successful in some fundamental discoveries concerning the delicate
structure of retina.

Milislav
Demerec
(1895-1966) worked in the field of
genetics in the USA. He had many important discoveries in the
genetics of bacteria. Demerec was president of the American
Genetics Society
and editor in chief of Advances in Genetics.

Croatian reader may be surprised to learn
that in Argentina
there are rivers like Korana, Kupa, Cetina, Una (confluents
of river Chany), then Bosna, Lika, Mura, Sava, Drava,
Drina
(confluents of river Relem). There are also waterfalls
Budak
and Mime (Rosandic). This is due to Croatian scientist
Ivica Frkovic, who led topographic
investigations in
the south of Argentina in the province of Neuquen near
Chilean border.
The founder of the first faculty of forestry in
Argentina is dr Josip Balen, together
with his Croatian
colleagues (Santiago del Estero in the south of Argentina).

Eduard Miloslavic (1884-1952) was
elected as a
member
of
the prestigious "Medico-Legal Society" in London in 1940. He was also
member
of the 1943 medical team which investigated the
slaughter of 12,000 Polish officers perpetrated by Soviets
in the Katyn wood in 1940. Upon his initiative in
1941 the Faculty of Medicine in
Sarajevo was founded in 1944.

When the University of Zagreb was founded in 1874, the Viennese
government of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire did not permit to
open a medical school. Professor Drago
Perovic (1888-1968), a Serb born in Herzegovina in Trebinje, was
one of the founders of the medical study
at the University of Zagreb in 1918.

Professor Andrija Stampar
(1888-1958) was our leading authority in the field of epidemiology and
a pioneer
in preventive medicine. He was one of the founders of the World Health
Organization (WHO) and very active in promoting the health service in
Afghanistan, Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia. He wrote the introductory
declaration of the Statute of the WHO and was the first president of
this organization.

The most outstanding representative
of the Croatian medicine, our specialist of international reputation in
the field
of othorhinolaryngology,
was Ante Sercer (1896-1968). Due to his
efforts
a faculty of medical science was founded in Sarajevo in
1944.

Vladimir Sertic (1901-1983) was a
microbiologist.
He discovered and classified several bacteriophages, among others the
famous Fi X 174.

Mirko
Drazen Grmek
(1924-2000) was professor of
history of medicine at the University of Zagreb,and since 1971 full
professor at the Sorbonne in Paris. He introduced the concept of pathocenosis
in 1969. For his scholarly achievements he was awarded with the order
of the Knight
of the French Legion of Honour in 1966. In 1996 the international
scientific
journal Eureka called him physician of the century.

Gabriel Gasic Livanic (1912-1996) was outstanding
Chilean biologist, professor at the University of Chile in Santiago,
specialist for cancer and leukemia, since 1965 living in the USA

Danko Brncic Juricic (1925-1998), founder of
genetics scientific studies in Chile, a member of the Chilean Academy
of Sciences, awarded with the National Prize for Science. He was one of
the founders of the Genetics
Society of
Chile (Sociedad genética de Chile and one of the founders of
the
Latinoamerican
Society for Genetics (Asociación latinoamericana de
genética) in 1970, and its first president.

The SUVAG center
for voice transmission
for reeducation of speech disorders and deafness
has been founded in Zagreb in 1961 by Academician
Petar
Guberina (1913-2005).
The name of SUVAG is coined from Systeme Universel Verbotonal
d'Audition Guberina. His books were translated into many languages,
including
Arabic
and Japanese.

Mladen Vranic
(1930) is distinguished researcher and educator in medical sciences
(endocrinology and metabolism) and former chair of physiology at the
University of Toronto. He is the only Canadian who got most prestigious
awards from American Diabetes association, and 2007 inaugural life
achievement award from Canadian Diabetes association.

Pasko Rakic (1933), outstanding
neurobiologist, professor at Yale, a member of the National Academy of
Sciences, USA, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and of other
national institutions, recipient of numerous honours throughout the
world, including Croatia.

Asaf Durakovic
(1940) is a nuclear scientist and former Chief of the Nuclear Sciences
Division at the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute, USA.

Zagreb has one of the most prestigious ultrasound diagnostic centers in
the field of cardiology and gynecology, founded by Professor
Asim Kurjak. He
founded the
Ian Donald Inter-University School of Medical Ultrasound in
Dubrovnik,
Croatia in 1981.

Humanitarian activity

An amazing anti-war, pacifist
sermon was given in 1778 by an anonymous Croatian preacher to
Croatian soldiers, immediately before the battle between Austrian and
Prussian troops in
Bohemia. While the Croatian original of this
remarkable sermon is still unknown, that same year eight translations
were published
in German, Dutch and Swedish, and in Latvian in 1804.

Dr. Borislav
Arapovic is a honorary director
of Biblical institute in
Stockholm, Sweden. In 1973 he founded The Institute for
Translation of The Bible into Languages of (former) Soviet
Union.
In 1996 the Russian Academy of Sciences
conferred him a doctorate honoris causa.
In 1999 he was elected foreign member of the Russian
Academy of Sciences. He is the author of

Humanitarian activity of the
International Fund Hungry Child is world-wide known. Its
founder (1969 in Zagreb) and the Secretary General was Vladimir Palecek (1940-1990). Only in the
period from 1969 to 1979 humanitarian aid (medicaments, food, clothing,
ambulances, money) has been sent to 44 countries.

We offer you a very interesting and successful
illustration of humanitarian activity in Croatia: